Hostess Handbook

Sept. 14, 2012 5:02 p.m. ET

"American Lady: The Life of Susan Mary Alsop" ($18, Viking), the first-ever biography of the Georgetown doyenne, charts her life from Paris—where she charmed Winston Churchill and was a favorite of Christian Dior—to Washington, D.C., where she threw some of the best parties of the Camelot era. Relishing every chance to observe "history on the boil," as she put it, Ms. Alsop knew how to keep regular guest JFK engaged in conversation (the topic: who was fooling around with whom) and the key to sparking political debate at her table: flowing Champagne. On shelves Nov. 8...